In A Lighter Vein Analysis

Sor Juana uses binary language in her poem “In a Lighter Vein” to explore the idealization of women by men. Sor Juana creates these binaries in order to critique this idealization and presents them in a dichotomous nature to clearly illustrate the indecisive and misguided needs of men. Sor Juana’s use of binary language aligns with French feminist theorist, Ann Rosalind’s categorization of binary language to be more of a masculine discourse, and thus could be argued that Sor Juana writes “In a Lighter Vein” in such a discourse. On the other hand, the confronta-tional nature of her poem and continuity throughout her poem can be seen as characteristic of a feminine discourse as described by another French feminist theorist, Helene Cixous. Although, …show more content…
“In a Lighter Vein” aims to present the contradictory requests of men when describing their need for a woman and their characterization of an ideal one. Throughout the poem, Sor Juana creates these dichotomous re-quests made by men, for example, “You batter her resistance down and then, all righteousness, proclaim that feminine frivolity, not your persistence, is to blame”. Sor Juana asserts that men blame women for their fragility and dismiss it as due to their femininity. Yet, in doing so com-pletely disregard the battering down and tarnishing of the female psyche through their own ac-tions. This culture of projecting blame she describes, reflects an inability to accept responsibility and a need to project perfection onto an aspect of life solely out of the control of men. Sor Juana both in the beginning and in the end of poem makes mention of the power men have, “I well know what powerful arms you wield in pressing for evil: your arrogance is allied with the world”. The power that Sor Juana makes mention of persists in how woman view themselves and conduct themselves as less than. She begins the poem with a clear denouncing of this idea, she asserts “Silly, you men—so very adept at wrongly faulting womankind, not seeing, you’re alone to blame for faults you plant in a woman’s mind”. Sor Juana asserts that men assign blame to a woman for her inability to satisfy him, when in actuality his indecisiveness creates …show more content…
Discussion regarding public discourse ranging from philosophy and psychoanalysis was often exclusionary to women. French feminists believed that the only way to have their writing be heard and no longer fall victim to the hierarchy was to “remove themselves and mark their escape through cre-ating texts that challenge the notion of ‘the Law-of-the-Father’” (packet). Thus, Sor Juana’s writings are an act of challenging the notions of the phallocentric society and marking her escape from the exclusionary being of a voiceless feminine figure to one of power through the manipu-lation of the gendered hierarchal